What  I Learned About Barbershop

I wasn't sure what I was getting into when I joined the Joplin barbershop chorus. I was hoping that I'd get to sing some of that barbershop harmony, of course, but didn't know how this was going to work.

When I walked in, I was greeted by several of the members, as normally happens when a new guy shows up. When it was time for rehearsal to begin, they put me right up on the risers with the chorus with a guest folder in my hands and I sang along as best I could. So the lesson was that anyone can walk right in and start singing with the chorus - at least with many of the choruses.

There are chapters of the Society (The Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. - really) that only admit new members after they pass an audition. These are mostly the top ranked choruses, as far as I know, and you could understand that they wouldn't want to have anyone join in that would threaten their ability to excel in competition. Other choruses don't care at all about competition, but are more social groups. And then there are chapters that do compete, but still allow anyone to join who wants to be a member. Some people just like a challenge, I guess.

Education is available - sometimes mandatory

Right from that first evening, my education began. Now, I'd been singing as a performer for a lot of years, but this group needed for me to know a lot more about singing than anybody else had ever required. What was presented wasn't in highly technical language, either, but the director and vocal coach told us what they wanted and how to produce it. I will say that knowing a bit about music theory - like being able to read music and knowing what sharps and flats are - was handy, but it wasn't really necessary.

I found that every rehearsal provided me an opportunity to learn more about music in general, vocal production, and singing in harmony.

Barbershoppers are kind of particular about how you produce a singing voice, or rather what kind of sound comes out of you. The good thing is that they will help you learn how to produce the appropriate kind of sound for barbershop harmony.

Then there were lessons on how to stand. You can't just slump and slouch on the risers! If you did, you wouldn't be able to breathe properly or produce a good vocal quality.

There's more, but it's getting late. The important thing is that these lessons come at a pretty slow pace. It's not all dumped on you at one time. Little by little, you become a better singer who knows more about what he's doing. That's not a bad thing.